Many drummers have a roadie on standby during concerts, in case of a head breaking, cymbal cracking, or bass pedal busting. Bun E. Carlos, the deceptively powerful drummer of Cheap Trick, has his man on alert just in case the perpetual cigarette dangling from his lips should be extinguished, or should he slap it across the stage with a stick. But don’t let Bun E.’s act (or guitarist Rick Nielsen’s constant flicking of picks out into the fervid crowd) fool you. Beneath the pomp and parading is a very musical metal, and one of the hardest-working and clearest-thinking drummers in rock. “Bun E. is the best drummer I’ve ever worked with,” says Nielsen, who attended high school with Carlos. “Besides that, he’s a brilliant conversationalist, and he knows how to keep a beat once in a while. “I could work with anybody I want to just about,” the guitarist continues. […]

September 1986 Issue